Twins!

Made my grand appearance at my Carpin pond today, business as usual. Carp millin around and can't set the hook on one. That is until I caught up to this little guy.

As usual I attacked the front line with the Carp Carrot. My go to fly so far. The take was so subtle I didn't even know I had him on. That and hes only 4.75 pounds so there was no fight at all.

After hooking into this guy I caught a glimps of some nice Carp rooting around in the shallow's with their dorsal fins out of the water. I made the attack but couldn't get close enough with out spooking them as I had to make a slow wade a third of the way across the shallow area. Then Carp I caught was nearly identical to the first. I swear it was either the same fish as before or it was it direct twin! Only the Carp will know...

 

Progress with the Carp Clam

Took to the water this afternoon. Conditions seemed less than ideal. The area still has a lot of smoke hanging around from the Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park. The wind was teasing as well. The carp were avoiding today making the first two hours pain staking, stomping brush and watching mud flumes from fleeing carp. I guess that's what you get for trying spots you didn't want to fish.
Moved back to the other side of the pond after literally having a debate with myself on weather or not I was going to leave. After winning the battle I head back down to the water.

Looking like a Boss this little guy weighed in at 8 pounds. He was in a mad hurry to devour a Carp Carrot. He nearly took the spool to the backing, I had other ideas and put the brakes on him!

The water in this area had risen pretty substantially, causing the larger Carp to be in areas they are not normally in. This allows them to root around with their backs out of the water making for an easy spot. There is an area where the stream flows into the pond, making for a pretty shallow and wide area to cross to the back side of the pond. The carp like this spot because of the buffet that flows through. This is also a clam bed with tons of sign of the little guys.

Watching the Carp expose themselves gave me the thought that they were feeding on small clams, so I loaded the rod with my new ammo, the Carp Clam. This is the newest version that I have been working on and think that it might be the secret ingredient. My other versions have had good hook sets which is why I have used a new material.

This 6.5 pounder thought that it looked good enough for him. Not only did he devour the Carp Clam but he swallowed it as well. Guess that's the sign that it works!

Hard to see in the picture but the Carp Clam is in there! This is a great sign!

 Nice ending to a slow start!

Overdue Update

I've been doing lots of fishing. Haven't kept track of all the outings, but that's the goal for next year. I recently went thru a four outing dry spell, very frustrating to say the least. It was more of an attempt to find some big Carp in the Truckee River. Many were seen and lessons were learned. Although I had seen some of the biggest Carp yet, well into the 20lb range!

Take half a day off work yesterday and headed out for some more R&D (Research & Development). I have been searching for some new water.



This is the area that I have been fishing. I have been primarily working the Northern right pond. It is fed from two separate streams Steamboat Creek and the other I cannot remember. Most of the water is unaccessible due to the golf course, which is going to be closed for a new road system at some point. Until then sometimes you have to be a little stealthy! On this outing I headed to the Southern end of the of the golf course were the water flows before it ever gets onto the golf course property. It seems prosperous!

This seemed like a good sign to me! A few tracks from other people but you could hear the Carp splashing around! I even surprised these two bucks hiding in the willows.

(Picture of Deer HERE)

I made my way around the protective fence to keep people out and headed down the walking path. I have gained alot of knowledge from Carp, soley by how fast I walk. Go to fast and they just blast out of there, to slow and they continue with what they are doing. I made my slow stroll down the path, watching, looking and marking where Carp could be seen clooping, tailing, mudding and cruising. Making it to the bend in the path I started fishing where the water opened up to shallow. I could see and hear Carp sucking the top water farther out than I could cast, so I narrowed my targets to any fish directly in front of me. First one was a dud! Instead I took his scale, darn false hook!



The next hook up was SOLID! This one was not a flase hook. With no where to go this was a quick battle. He wieghed in at 4 lbs.

Next Carp came in at 6lbs, this one was landed in a okward spot in some tules. I was attempting to take a picture with my iPhone, I decieded not to after I dropped the phone in the water. It landed one foot under water on a rock, DAMN the luck! Thank goodness the phone was ok. That was the 3rd time it has been under water in a standard Otterbox case, time for an upgrade! Otterbox Armour!

After landing the last Carp, I headed to my everyday spot. I have been working the opposite side of the pond, there seems to be less pressure there and I have seen more tailing and mudding Carp there.

I parked at my normal spot and headed across the bridge to get in position. While crossing the bridge I always look to see whats lingering. There were two nice carp working the fast moving water. I flicked the Hyrbid Carp Worm out, to the Carp on the right. BOOM, he's on! Or that's what I thought. It was a real fighter, I scrambled off the bridge and into the tall White Top (a type of brush in this area). I moved down the steep bank to the waters edge and hand stripped the fish in. To my surprise it was not a Carp, instead it was a nice Channel Catfish. I figured the Catfish was right under the Carp and beat him to the punch!

I moved down the bank seeing many Carp. No takers, so I continued down to a section that I have never been in. There were Carp everywhere! Jumping all over each other, darting here and there! I see the dark shadow of one moving by, toss the Hybrid out. I see him dart to his left and BOOM take off! This one was swimming for the other shore, striping line off like it was hooked to a truck! I finally got the brakes on and returned him back to where he started, he blasted off again this time through some weed beds. Now I am tangled up in the weeds. After untangling and hauling the Carp to the net he was finally mine! Last Carp of the day 9 solid pounds. Couldn't have been better!